A Cop’s Best Friend

Santa Ana Police Officer Judy Stanbra hasn’t talked to her partner in 18 months.

Yet they went to school together. They walk the beat together. They even live together.

But even though they aren’t great conversationalists, Stanbra says, she and her partner get along quite well.

Stanbra’s partner is a dog--Sammy, a 4-year-old Belgian malinois.

“He’s my partner during the day, but he becomes a pet at home,” said Stanbra, an animal lover who, besides Sammy, lives with two civilian dogs.

Stanbra, 31, is a 7 1/2-year police veteran. She has long had an interest in veterinary medicine and said she applied for the canine unit because she enjoys “being outside and working with animals.”

“One of the reasons we picked her is because she had a special feeling working with animals,” said Sgt. Raul Luna, head of Santa Ana Police Department’s six-member canine unit. “She was excellent in training.”

Five of the department’s dogs are Belgian malinois imported from the Netherlands, where they are trained by Dutch police before being sent to Santa Ana. (The sixth canine is a German shepherd.)

The police officer and the dog then train together for 5 weeks before they begin patrolling the streets. Besides working together, they live together.

The canine unit, which was started in February, 1982, is used primarily to assist in looking for suspects in buildings or other areas and in SWAT operations.

“They’re able to use their noses and give us a better chance of finding suspects,” Stanbra said.

“Dogs can also do the . . . (search) faster,” Luna said.